Thailand welcomes Hungarian businesses

The Hungarian Trade and Cultural Center (HTCC) has opened a new base in Southeast Asia’s cultural and trade center, Bangkok, to help Hungarian companies make business in Thailand. Globoport.hu asked Zsolt Ménes, the office’s manager about HTCC’s future plans in the region.

Why did HTCC chose Thailand to open its first office in Southeast Asia?

International companies and enterprises usually choose Bangkok as a base to coordinate their business in the region, because the Thai capital has such features like no other cities in the area. First – although it may seem secondary today – Bangkok is located in the middle of Southeast Asia, and many Southern countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, or Vietnam, are easily accessible, making it the centre of every kind of transportation. The Bangkok airport is one of the busiest airports in Asia, and has many cheap, low-cost flights to the big cities of all the nearby countries. Also, Bangkok has a great infrastructure for a start-up company, and all the services that are crucial for maintaining a business are available, such as high speed internet connection. In addition to having everything a business might need, Bangkok’s political life is quite stable, apart from some minor turns, which do not influence public utilities, and the political battles do not shake the Thai administration or its economic stability.

Thailand is not an “unknown field” in the world, everyone is present at the Thai market; with what kind of hopes did you open the HTCC office?

There’s no doubt that Thailand has been an important partner of the West for a long time now. Besides tourism, which serves as the country’s main income, agriculture and the food industry form an important part of the Thai economy, but many other branches are getting bigger and bigger as well. The Western European, American, Chinese, and Asian companies are present in every segment of the Thai economy, and Hungary does not yet have such a close relationship with the country as it has with several nearby countries like Vietnam, or Laos. Thailand does not have hundreds and hundreds of professionals trained in Hungary, as during the Vietnam War, Vietnamese experts were trained in Hungary, while Thailand was the ally of the United States. That means that Hungarians have to work hard for every business deal they get, but the Thai economy develops dynamically, showing two digit increases for years, and people are open to make business with other countries, besides the traditional partners. In the past couple of decades, tourism has created a base for mutual work – when the Hungarian-Thai tourism was on its peak, more than 15.000 Hungarian tourists visited Thailand, therefore both countries know about the existence of the other.

The Bangkok office is the youngest member of the HTCC network. How can you help those Hungarian enterprises which are seeking Thai connections?

I’ve been working in a multicultural environment for a long time now, and I’ve been living in Asia for years, furthermore: I moved to Thailand a year and a half ago. These experiences help me to see why it is so hard for Central European businesses to have access to the Thai market. We have to admit that things are much slower in Thailand; if a new business partner shows up in Hungary, he sends a sample of his product, and if the local entrepreneur likes it, they quickly decide, try the sample, and buy the product. But in Thailand business needs a personal partnership, a mutual trust, and it means many-many dinner parties. Also, bureaucracy and licensing takes time as well. Patience is needed, and a partner who knows the local business well, to build a stable, working network. It’s obvious that there’s a demand for this kind of partnership from both sides; many Hungarian businesses have already reached out to us, and we’re currently working on a dozen serious projects. Some companies would only like to sell their products, but there are some who are thinking about taking part in a technological transfer, and would like to produce goods in Thailand.

based on an article of globoport.hu
translated by Adrienn Sain

Copy editor: bm

Source: globoport.hu